Olympus Pen D
Olympus · Fixed lens · 18×24 mm on 35mm film · 1962
Also known as: Olympus Pen-D · Olympus Pen D2 · Olympus Pen D3 · オリンパス ペンD
Variants & identification
| Variant | Mount | Years | Serial ranges | Production |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pen D (1962) | Half-frame | 1962 | — | No figure published |
| Pen D2 (1964) | Half-frame | 1964 | — | No figure published |
| Pen D3 (1965) | Half-frame | 1965 | — | No figure published |
- The D3's f/1.7 is a different lens from the D's f/1.9, and by the rule that a new optical design makes a new family it could stand alone. It does not, because Olympus sold it as the third revision of one model, in the same body with the same meter arrangement, and every account treats the three as one camera improved twice.
- No production figure exists for any of the three; the only number the literature offers is the 17 million for all half-frame Pens together.
- Casual Photophile gives a US price of about $70 around 1964. No Japanese list price has been located for this entry.
How to tell them apart
- The fastest lens on any fixed-lens Pen: 32mm at f/1.9, then f/1.7, where the EE family runs f/3.5 and f/2.8
- A meter that reads a number and leaves the setting to you: uncoupled, match nothing, set the light value on the lens
- About 400 g — nearly twice an XA, as Casual Photophile weighs it
Pen D (1962):
- F.Zuiko 32mm f/1.9, six elements
- Shutter to 1/500
- Uncoupled selenium meter reading in light values, ASA 10–400; the cell sits on the front plate, not around the lens
Pen D2 (1964):
- The same camera with a CdS cell in place of the selenium one, so a battery and a switch
Pen D3 (1965):
- F.Zuiko 32mm f/1.7, six elements in four groups, in place of the f/1.9
- CdS meter as the D2; the last and best-specified of the viewfinder Pens
Specifications
- Format
- 18×24 mm on 35mm film · 72 exposures
- Finder
- Direct-vision optical finder; the meter reading is on the top plate, not in the finder · no rangefinder image
- Shutter
- Copal leaf, between the lens · 1/8–1/500 and B
- Film advance
- Thumbwheel on the back
- Meter
- Uncoupled: selenium on the D (no battery), CdS on the D2 and D3. It reports a light value which the photographer transfers to the lens by hand.
- Designed by
- Maitani Yoshihisa (米谷美久) — designer of the Pen series
- Country
- Japan
What reviewers say
- Jeff Zorabedian (Casual Photophile), New York with a Pen D (blog) — Frames "sharp, contrasty, and almost spectral in the way details loom out of the grain," and an advance that becomes compulsive — "the hushed tick of the shutter followed by two short geared throws." Scale focus costs early frames, and at 400 g it is nearly twice an XA.
- Jay SE1 (Kosmo Foto) (blog) — He lost twenty frames on the first roll forgetting the focus slider, and forgives it everything: results "clear and much sharper than I'd expected for such a small frame," a nearly silent release, no battery, flash at every speed. The 1/500 ceiling and ASA 400 limit bite, the selenium cell will die one day, and the camera lives by his front door regardless.
- Hans (Son of a Chef) (blog) — "The shots that the Pen-D takes can be magic": because the cell only meters and never drives the shutter, the D avoids the failure that grounds so many EE bodies. Every control lives on the lens, so the side-mounted focus knob gets knocked, and the tiny negatives are hard to scan cleanly.
History
Three years after the Pen, Olympus built the one for photographers. The Pen D of 1962 kept the half-frame body and put a six-element F.Zuiko 32mm f/1.9 on the front of it, a shutter that reached 1/500, and a selenium meter on the front plate that read out a light value and left the setting to you. Nothing on it is automatic. The D2 of 1964 swapped the selenium cell for CdS and a battery; the D3 of 1965 opened the lens to f/1.7, six elements in four groups, and is the last and best of the viewfinder Pens.
Reviewers keep saying the same two things. The negatives are sharper than an 18×24 frame has any right to be — Casual Photophile finds details that “loom out of the grain,” Kosmo Foto calls the results joyous — and the camera punishes inattention, because the focus slider sits on the side of the lens and is easy to forget. The 1/500 top speed and the ASA 400 ceiling date it; the uncoupled meter, oddly, is the reason it survives, since a cell that only advises cannot lock the shutter when it fails.
No one has published how many were made. The 17 million figure Olympus quotes is for every half-frame Pen, and the D was never the volume seller; that was the EE beside it.
This history is AI-written, from the sources listed at the foot of the page. Where the record is silent it says so rather than filling the gap — but no human wrote these sentences.
Example photos
Sample photo wanted — shot with a Olympus Pen D? We'd love to feature it (with credit).
Live listings
Asking price, USD: a median of $100 across 29 fixed-price listings on 2026-09-11 (middle half $75–$130). Tracked since 2026-09-06, 2 days: unchanged from $100.
By day
| Date | Median | Middle half | Listings |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2026-09-11 | $100 | $75–$130 | 29 |
| 2026-09-06 | $100 | $75–$130 | 29 |
Asking prices from the listings scanned, not sales; junk-flagged rows and auction lots excluded; other currencies are not converted.
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Show 46 more listings
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Listings updated 2026-09-11. Links go to the shop or marketplace that carries the item.